


The Finding

by lisachan



Series: Leoverse [136]
Category: Glee
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 15:45:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13527462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lisachan/pseuds/lisachan
Summary: Leo is one of the best members of Doctor Blaine Anderson's scavenging team, the Hellhounds. The other three are Annie, Adam and Meredith, and with the first already on leave for reaching her monthly quota of findings ahead of the time and the last two still scavenging, Blaine's only expecting Leo to come visit him with his last finding for the month. And Leo does -- and what he brings is a surprise for more than just one reason.





	The Finding

**Author's Note:**

> **WARNING:** This story is an **AU** from the original 'verse. What happens in here has little to none correlation with what happens in Leonard Karofsky-Hummel VS The world or Broken Heart Syndrome. The characters involved are (mostly) the same, but situations and relationships between them may be completely different.  
>  In this particular instance of the multi-verse, Earth has become inhabitable centuries ago, and the human race has scattered throughout the whole Solar System. Colonies are inhabiting mostly Venus, partially terraformed, Mars, though living conditions are heavy and most of the colonies there are labs, the Moon and a few satellites all over the system. The human colonies are mostly very poor and can't provide for their children, which is why most parents abandon them. The orphans are gathered on the Moon, where they live in special accommodation facilities, supported by the government, until they can buy their freedom off with the earnings of their scavenging. They work for the labs on Mars, which all answer to the Head Lab on the same planet. They also have a monthly quota to fill. What happens if they don't fill their monthly quota? Well, that just doesn't happen. You _have_ to fill your monthly quota. You just _have_ to.

Leo stands proudly in front of the door, and Blaine chuckles, because he already knows what that smug smile means. "Oh, dear," he says, moving from the door to let him and his mysterious hooded companion in, "You found something."

"I found the best thing that could ever be found and the best of the best you've ever seen," Leo says, strolling in proudly, still wearing his outer space garments. He clearly couldn't wait to show him his package – both of them. Blaine's already smiling thinking forward at when their usual dance will start, Leo shamelessly hitting on him, and him bouncing him off with a laughter and a pat on the head as always. 

One day, the kid will be old and rich enough, and that day Blaine will hold him with no fear of any consequence related to the moral or the legal code of the space station, and everything will be alright. He will take this bright young mind in, he will teach him all there it to know about his job and they will be scientists together, and the doors of the universe will unlock for them.

For now, though, they have to strictly stick to the dancing.

Leo is one of his scavenger kids – his favorite, he has to admit with a little bit of shame. He shouldn't be playing favorites among the kids, he knows that, it doesn't help the team. It creates frictions, jealousy and makes things unstable – he's a biologist, a surgeon, a researcher and a chemist, he doesn't like instability. True, it makes for good competition, and good competition always leads to better findings, but all in all he prefers a close-knit team, kids who can help each other in dire situations, to a bunch of wild boys and girls ready to jump at each other's throats to present him a more original finding.

His is one of the most renowned teams in the whole solar system. They rarely work together – but after all scavengers almost never do – but when they do, they bring home things that would be the finding of a lifetime for any other normal scavenging teams. Leo, Adam, Annie and Meredith. The Hellhounds, as they're known in the scavengers circle.

Tonight, it’s just Leo, though. Adam and Meredith are still out scavenging, as they haven’t reached their monthly quota yet, while Annie’s already on leave: she found a whole cargo ship filled to the brim with Martian slugs abandoned on Callisto one week ago, and she was paid so much for that she not only paid her taxes, but she could save enough to buy a quarter of her ship off the government. That’s the first step towards independence: if she keeps it up like that, she’s going to be free way before any of the others.

Leo, on the other hand, was only a couple hundred thousand dollars away from his monthly quota, so Blaine knew he would be back tonight. He was prepared to receive something dull and boring, something already seen a thousand times – Leo tends to get sloppy when he knows he only needs to close down the month – but Leo’s smile speaks of something truly original, and Blaine can’t wait to see what it is.

The finding looks like a young person. It’s hard to determine if it’s a boy or a girl, with its face hidden by the hood. Its plump and smooth legs would suggest female, but the flatness of its chest would suggest otherwise. And yet, it could still be a boy, even with those legs, if it were simply a little chubby, and it could still be a girl, even with those breasts, if it were simply too young. Or it could be completely genderless. Some aliens are.

“What is it?” Blaine asks, amused, as he sits on his stool in front of the table covered with the results of the tests on the Martian slugs.

“I have no idea!” Leo’s clearly overexcited, there’s all the power of his fourteen years old in the way he jumps around and finally settles next to the hooded creature, seconds before removing the hood from its head. “Ta-dah!”

Blaine stops for a second, looking at the creature. He must admit he has never seen anything like this. It looks like a doll – a porcelain doll, something old-fashioned, something perfect that doesn’t even exist anymore on the station. People are not this perfect anymore. Sometimes he watches old videos and pictures from centuries ago, and some of the people living back then were this beautiful, but not anymore. Life in space is harder on human beings. Oxygen deprivation tends to make bodies longer and less graceful. Bones are weaker and break more easily, and it’s hard to put them back together without leaving a permanent sign of their breaking. He himself, despite the care with which he fixed his own index finger after breaking it during an experiment years ago, can still see the point where it flexes a little, showing that the bones have not patched up straight.

This creature, though. It’s perfect. Untainted. Completely and utterly whole.

Its skin is pale as marble. It’s smaller than any other being Blaine has ever seen in such an anthropomorphic shape. Its legs are long but proportionate, and all the rest of it can’t be taller than a twelve years old kid. In fact, it’s a little smaller than Leo. The tiny circular bones forming natural rings around its wrists, underneath its skin, pretends to be bracelets, and he’s got the hugest blue eyes in the whole of the universe. They seem to hold the whole solar system in them, so much they shine.

“Amazing,” he whispers, standing from the stool to come closer to the creature, studying it. “Boy or girl? Did you check?”

“Boy,” Leo answers proudly, “I checked.”

“Dirty boy.”

“Couldn’t help myself, have you seen him?” Leo snickers, “He’s soft like a peach. Speaking of which. Do you have some?”

“What, peaches?”

“Yeah, I’ve been obsessing over them since you had me taste them last time.”

“Sorry, kiddo,” Blaine chuckles, “My supply is over. We’ll have to wait next June.”

“Disappointing,” Leo pouts, crossing his arms over his chest. However, his disappointment lasts only briefly, and soon enough he’s smiling again. “So? Isn’t he something?”

“He sure is something,” Blaine nods slowly, passing his fingers through the raven straight hairlocks of the creature. They’re silky and soft, like freshly coiffed human hair. But the creature, with its raggedy clothes and the tiny scrapes covering his body, hardly looks as if it had just come out of a hairdressing salon, and that in itself is proof enough of the alien quality of its hair, and therefore its nature. “But what are you…?” he wonders, studying its facial features and the wide cut of its baby blue eyes.

He’s not sure this lab is the right place for this creature. Were he more ruthless than he already is, he’d probably contact a trader on the black market. William would probably be the wisest choice. He’s the worst as a human being, but that’s also why he’s the best as a trader. He sure would know how and where to employ this alien beauty. The protruding bones in his wrists make Blaine think about ropes or even chains. He can think of at least two pleasure houses in the oasis of Venus where people wouldn’t hesitate to tear that precious pale skin off those slender wrists to expose the ivory bones underneath, pierce them and turn them into natural born handcuffs.

But he’s not a trader. He’s a scientist. He doesn’t sell his precious creatures, he studies them.

“Alright,” he concedes, “I’ll take him.”

As he sits back down on the wheeled stool and rolls back to his computer station to contact the head lab, he listens to Leo cheer and then get closer to the creature again. He speaks to it softly, which is a nice thing. Blaine has never seen Leo soft with one of his findings, not even when they were alive. 

“You heard what he said?” he tells the alien, who, as an answer to that, get closer to him, as if wanting to feel Leo’s body warmth, as if it gave him comfort, “He’s gonna keep you. This means you’ll be okay. You understand me? You’re safe now. He’ll treat you well.”

Blaine arches an eyebrow, turning to look at him. “Where did you find this creature, Leo?”

“I took him away from a slaves ship,” Leo finally admits, quite proudly.

Blaine exhales, passing a hand over his face. “I knew there had to be something wrong in this. Sooner or later they’re going to arrest you, kid, and there will be nothing for me to do but let it happen.”

“Hey, I didn’t steal him nor anything.”

“You just said you did.”

“Nope, I said I took him away from a slaves ship, but I didn’t steal him. He was escaping. So technically he was already _off_ the ship, and I simply took him with me.”

“Leo,” Blaine groans, “This will never stick in court.”

“But we won’t get to court,” the kid flashes him a blinding smile, “’Cos you just said you’re keeping him, and no one will find him here.”

Well. Nothing to say there, that’s compelling logic. “Fine,” he snorts, shaking his head and turning back to his computer, “I won’t say. Still, I’ve got to say _something_ , or they won’t pay. Take a few pictures of him while I think, do you mind? The camera’s up there on the shelf.”

“Uh, my pleasure,” Leo smirks, retrieving the camera and arranging the alien on a chair to take a few pictures of him, especially his most extravagant features, to make it appealing for the scientists at head lab. “Can I take a couple dirty ones and keep ‘em?”

“No,” Blaine snorts, tapping quickly on the keyboard, “Alright, I said that on your way back to the lab today you encountered an alien life form abandoned alone on Phobos. There was no debris scattered around but it is plausible that the creature was involved in some sort of accident, as it were unconscious. You picked it up and brought it here. Planet of origin and species are yet to be determined, and I’ll be waiting for confirmation of interest on their part before I start to yadda yadda. Remember it, kid, if anyone questions you about it that’s how it went.”

“I’ll remember,” Leo answers, “But I’m disappointed about the pictures.”

Blaine groans, rolling his eyes. “Just one,” he allows. Leo lets out a high-pitched scream and makes the creature bend over to take a picture up its skirt. At first the creature doesn’t understand what’s happening and lets him do whatever he wants, but then, upon feeling exposed and consequently vulnerable, he lets out a tiny mouthy sound and turns around, covering himself and bumping Leo on the head with his closed fist.

Leo chuckles, massaging his head and putting away the camera. “Okay, okay, I got it, no more pictures,” he says, “Another kiss? I’ll leave in a while.”

“You kissed him?” Blaine turns to look at Leo, unsure on how he’s supposed to feeling at the news. This kid would literally stop at nothing for some intimate contact. It’s troubling. 

“I couldn’t resist, he’s too cute,” Leo admits easily, shrugging, “He’s also super sweet, he tastes like chocolate. Maybe you should write that in your report too, that’s weird, to say the least. Aliens usually don’t taste like chocolate.”

“Undoubtedly,” Blaine admits with a sigh. He’s about to start lecturing Leo about the dangers of intimate contacts with unheard of alien species, when a beeping sound from his computer notifies him that he’s received an answer from the head lab. The email contains authorization to proceed, and also copy of the credit transfer issued to Leo’s bank account. “Ah,” he says, “Monthly quota fulfilled. They paid nicely for him. I think you might have just discovered a new species, Leo.”

“Really?” Leo’s eyes literally beam as he approaches the computer screen to take a look at the figure head lab just paid. He whistles too, smirking proudly. “This was a good month, he says, pressing his nose against the line of Blaine’s neck, “Soon I’ll be rich enough to buy my freedom, and then there will be nothing separating us anymore. I will be a freeman like you and you won’t be able to use our caste difference as an excuse not to shag me any longer.”

“I won’t need to use that excuse, because you’ll still be a minor and the law would still be protecting you from any sexual intercourse with a man of age,” Blaine smiles confidently, “At least for four more years. So take your time putting aside money for your freedom, you still have a long walk ahead of you.”

Leo pouts and then snorts, moving away from him, annoyed. “Party pooper,” he grunts, “Whatever. I’ll take my money and get drunk at the Prince of Persia.”

“You can’t drink alcohol yet, Leo, you’re not old enough,” Blaine sighs.

“The barman doesn’t care about that, he only cares about my money,” Leo shrugs.

Blaine sighs again, surrendering. “At least find Adam and Meredith, please. If you have to get wasted, do it with them.” So Blaine can be sure somehow he will make it home before dawn. Meredith is a good girl, with her head on straight, and Adam is as close as a policemen as a fourteen year old boy without a badge can be. He can put Leo’s well-being in their hands with no second thoughts.

“You don’t need to tell me that – who else would I be getting wasted with, anyway, they’re my best friends! I’m only disappointed Annie’s on leave already, we’re wonderful drunk partners.”

Which is why, on the contrary, Blaine’s glad Annie’s already gone back to the moon. Leo and her tend to get dangerous together, they get too wild. “You’ll see her soon enough,” Blaine says to change the subject, “You’re done for this month. I’ll see you again in fifteen days.”

It’s only then that Leo finally realizes reaching his monthly quota means that he’s due to go back to the moon too, and he won’t be able to come back to the lab on Mars until the new month begins. His shoulders drop a little and he loses his fiery and playfully scorned expression, his eyebrows curving downwards and his lips pursing in a sad pout. “You shouldn’t be so happy to see me leave,” he complains, drawling.

Blaine can’t help but smile, getting closer to him and combing his hair away from his forehead, to leave a kiss there. “I am, instead,” he says, “You deserve a break.” And the moon is much a nicer place than Mars. Were it for him, his kids would have to work for a much lower monthly quota. He’d be content with them doing half of what they do now, if they could spend longer periods on the moon. 

“Yeah, but not from you,” Leo sighs, receiving the kiss but then moving away from him, tearing himself off Blaine like a Band-Aid. “Whatever…” he mutters, “I’ll see you… soon enough.” Then he turns around, stopping by the creature one last time. “You behave, okay?” he says, as if the alien could understand him, “You be nice to Blaine and he’ll be nice to you. And I’ll come see you again in a couple weeks. Okay?”

The alien closes his tiny hands around the fabric of Leo’s shirt, clearly getting that Leo’s about to leave. Leo lets out a cooing sound and wraps his arms around the creature, marveling at his cuteness and adorableness. Blaine watches him cuddle the tiny alien like a big brother, and the picture makes him smile. Oh, he will make a splendid scientist out of him. Despite his smugness and recklessness, Leo’s got a love for any and every being that will make him the best at studying every life form.

He watches him leave with a quick goodbye, and when the plug door of the lab seals itself he finally turns to look at the creature, which has moved a couple steps away from him and is now looking at him as if he had turned into food and Blaine was the one already holding fork and knife. “Don’t be afraid of me, pet,” Blaine smiles reassuringly, offering his hand to him, “It’s going to be alright. Leo hasn’t lied. I will need to make a few tests on you, but they won’t be too invasive, and I’ll be respectful, I promise. Come on, let’s get you washed, fed and properly clothed, first.”

The tiny creature wrinkles his nose and sniffles the palm of his hand, uncertain on whether he should trust him or not. In the end, he must decide to trust Leo’s trust in him, at least, because he takes his hand and lets him lead him towards the bathroom.

And that’s when Blaine finally notices the tattoo on the back of the alien’s shoulder. William’s overturned initial, styled as a black and red scratch over that pale, perfect skin.

He swallows, taking a mental note about kicking Leo in the ass next time he sees him. The kid played him well. “Not stolen my ass…” he growls under his breath. 

The creature stops halfway through a step, turning to look at him and casting him a curious, almost worried glance. Were Blaine a wiser man, he’d call William right away. He’d apologize on Leo’s behalf and he’d give him the creature back, no questions asked, pleading for mercy.

He must be really stupid, though. Because he keeps leading him to the bathroom, instead.


End file.
